T-Mobile to FCC: 'Tread lightly'

T-Mobile is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to "tread lightly" as the agency looks into a series of video offerings that have raised network neutrality concerns among advocates.

The mobile carrier has been at the center of the debate recently with its new Binge On video program, which exempts certain video from customers' monthly data caps but also reduces the download speeds of all video. "The commission has to tread lightly," said Kathleen Ham, who head's T-Mobile's government affairs. "And certainly more lightly than for the wired world in the wireless space — when there is so much experimentation happening, so much differentiation happening. And a lot of it customers responding to. We do have to be transparent about it. We have to make sure the customer has choices, but I think it is wise to tread lightly in this environment when there is so much going on." During a event hosted by the the Open Technology Institute, Ham said conversations were ongoing with the commission. The FCC has sent letters and been meeting with multiple mobile carriers to try and understand similar programs that exempt certain Internet traffic from data caps — a business model known as zero-rating.